Smart myTV meets red tape

The Inquirer reports that the first "commercial mobile TV service in the Philippines, myTV, may run into trouble with regulators."

Officials of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) said companies planning to broadcast digital programs to TV sets or mobile devices cannot yet go commercial because the commission has yet to issue guidelines on digital TV programming.

"Our TWG (technical working group) has formulated its initial recommendations. What triggered the review were the industry inputs we got during a public hearing," Deputy Commissioner Jorge Sarmiento said.

NTC Commissioner Abraham Abesamis added that the TWG will start the review within the month and deputy commissioner Jaime Fortes said the group will try to draft the final rules quickly so that the NTC's 2015 deadline for the phaseout of analog TV programming will be followed.

Sarmiento added: "As for mobile TV broadcasts, there are test services now, and some may have the impression that these are already commercial, but they are not. They are just demos."

He was alluding to the myTV broadcasts offered by Smart Communications Inc. and sister company MediaQuest.

You can read the rest of it here. Thanks to Jed for the heads up.